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Opinion: Shane Del Rosario

Last Tuesday the MMA world learned that current UFC Heavyweight, Shane del Rosario, had suffered a heart attack at his home, a story that was reported here at Full Contact Fighter. Unfortunately, it appears that his condition is not improving.

Ariel Helwani has supplied an update on Del Rosario, which was published by mmafighting.com. In the piece, Helwani posts comments made by Jason House, del Rosario’s manager.

House stated that his fighter has “very, very, very slim chance” or surviving, and that in order to do so del Rosario needed “a miracle.”

This comes on the heels of House’s statement on Wednesday when he said, “Shane had a catastrophic cardiovascular collapse at home on Tuesday morning. He was brought to the hospital in full cardiac arrest. He was resuscitated in the emergency room back to a stable heart rhythm and blood pressure.”

Shane del Rosario’s teammate and friend fellow fighter, Ian McCall tweeted, “My brother friend and teammate is not gone yet no matter what you have heard! Pray for him.”

We’re fortunate as fans that we seldom see stories like this. Stories that can evoke profound senses of not only sadness, but confusion. It seems unfathomable that a 30 year old professional athlete in tip top shape could suffer such a catastrophic illness, seemingly out of the blue.

Shane del Rosario’s family and friends are still holding fast to the hope that he will make a full recovery. They have faith that a young man, who made a living fighting, has at least one more fight left in him. I know that they are not alone.

Often my pieces are rather critical in nature, and that’s the beauty of being an opinion writer. This piece will not follow that pattern. There is nothing to critique, to scoff at. There’s nothing that’s laughable or commendable here. This is simply a tragic situation. The only response I can give to this story is to offer my well wishes, thoughts, and prayers, to del Rosario and his loved ones.